Biography
Paul Hindemith (Paul Hindemith, 1895 – 1963) was a German classical musician, one of the most important of the 20th century. He was a composer, violinist, violinist, music teacher and orchestra director.
He was born in Hanau near Frankfurt, on November 16, 1895. His father was a painter and decorator, he started violin lessons from a young age, and then he studied violin, composition and conducting at the Hosche Conservatory in Frankfurt. From 1914 he played second violin and later viola in the Rebner String Quartet, from 1915 he worked as conductor of the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra, in 1921 he founded the "Amar" Quartet with which he toured Europe. In 1922 he began to become known to the international public when his works were performed at the Contemporary Music Festival in Salzburg. From 1927, he taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin.
The rise of Hitlerism found him a professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, some members of the Nazi Party denounced his music as degenerate others thought he could be the model German composer of Modern Music. In the 1930s, he was sometimes in favor and sometimes out of favor with the Nazi regime, with whom he collaborated on some occasions, directing the music of some official Nazi celebrations and accepting a position in the Reich Chamber Music Ensemble. Finally in 1938, he distanced himself from the Nazi party and due to his wife's Jewish origin, he immigrated to Switzerland.
Before going to Switzerland, he lived for 2 years in Turkey (1935-37), a guest of Kemal Atatürk, where he undertook the restructuring of Turkish musical education, while at the same time he made efforts to establish the Turkish State Opera and Ballet. In 1939 he immigrated to the USA where he remained until 1947 and among other things he taught at Harvard University. From 1953 he settled in Switzerland.
One of his most important works is Mathis der Maler (Mathis the Painter, 1938), which is based on the life of the 16th century painter Mathis Grünewald, who was active in Germany during the religious wars. In addition to the works of classical music, he also composed music for motion pictures and for ballet and wrote many theoretical studies, the most important of which is a Composition textbook.
Hindermit had married in 1924 a well-known actress of the time and had no children. He died in Frankfurt on December 28, 1963, of acute pancreatitis.